The most unnecessary loan word in the Japanese language!

Raisu Krinkles!

I'm a bit too beat to go through my old posts and link here now, but my loyal readers might remember that I have discussed the enthusiasm that the Japanese have for loan words borrowed from English and making up new and unique faux-English abbreviations.

I usually don't mind the English words sprinkled in (but mostly pronounced in such a way that a native English speaker might have problems hearing that it's originally an English word) but there are some that are clearly unnecessary as the Japanese language has words that carry exactly the same meaning and is easier to say for a native Japanese speaker.

One example that comes to mind is the use of "ベター" (Betaa) from the English word "Better". So when saying "this is better" instead of the regular way of saying it ("のほうがいいです") they replace the Japanese word with the bastardized version of "better" ("のほうがベターです”). I don't particularly mind this use, but I find it quite amusing and use it as often as I can.

However, the most unnecessary loan word in the Japanese language is... ... ... "raisu": "Rice" pronounced in Japanese. Remember that this is a country where the whole food culture is built on the foundation of rice. I dare you to find a Japanese person who doesn't like rice and most people eat it basically every day, many with three meals. Baby Sunshine quite frequently refuses to eat anything else, showing that her quarter of white genes are fighting a losing battle. So for this, the most fundamental and basic of all foodstuff in Japan, it is not uncommon to use the English word for it here in Japan.

I think that this would be somewhat comparable with Eskimos importing the English words "Ice" and "snow" for daily use instead of the words in the native language...